Bristol students are being targeted by an awareness campaign to try to prevent further tragedies on the city's waterways.

Six people have been found dead in Bristol's waterways this year alone, with several of them ending up in the water after drinking alcohol during an night on the town. Look back a further six years and a total of 14 people have died in the river Avon, Feeder Canal and Floating Harbour, and 11 of them are believed to have had alcohol or drugs in their system.

And in the last week alone, two people are understood to have gone into the Feeder Canal, with one rescued by staff from nightclub Motion.

Bristol has been identified as one of the UK's highest-risk areas for drink-related drowning by the Royal Life Saving Society. Intoxication has been linked to a startling 73 per cent of all drownings in the region.

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"Drowning is a huge issue in the UK, almost 400 people every year lose their life to drowning, that's more people than in cycling accidents," said Di Steer, chief executive of the Royal Life Saving Society UK.

"It is only when you put it in that sort of perspective that you see drowning doesn't really get a lot of profile in terms of the impact it has.

"Particularly when a big number of those who drown are young people, young males between 17-25 a lot of them being intoxicated," she added.

RLSS UK is the leading provider of water safety and drowning prevention education. (Image: James Beck)

Joining the RLSS UK on the party boat were the Avon Fire and Rescue Service who have to assist in all of the operations to retrieve people from the water.

Talking to hundreds of students from the city's music college and two universities they were warned not to walk home alongside the water after a night out drinking.

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"One of the boys fell in twice, the other was peer pressures into getting in. Both know what it was like to be in the water, they've experienced it and count themselves lucky. It is just not a good idea," she said.

Organisations and businesses in Bristol have started the Bristol Water Safety Partnership which is a coordinated initiative aimed at reducing the number of people ending up in the water around the city.

Drowning prevention services warn not to walk home near water. (Image: James Beck)

Their website and the RLSS UK website provides more information on how to stay safe and how to get involved with the campaign.